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Oscar and Janet have been trying for years to find the right balance in their housekeeping. Janet’s mother had a hoarding disorder, and clutter drives her nuts. When she gets home from a long day in her family practice clinic, she wants to walk into a place that feels put together and serene.

Oscar gets six-year-old Janie off to school every morning, and then is home all day with their 4-year-old twins. Although he’s sympathetic to Janet’s need to have “a place for everything and everything in its place,” he doesn’t mind when things pile up a bit, and in fact that is his natural tendency. He scrambles to get the breakfast and lunch dishes cleared away before he goes to pick up Janie from her school.

For Janet’s sake he hastily picks up the biggest kid projects and shoves things into closets before she gets home. Last week Janie’s teacher pulled him aside and said that Janie was losing her homework work and pencils a little too often. She gestured at a desk with crumpled papers sticking out and suggested that Oscar might be able to help Janie with organizational skills. Guiltily, Oscar wondered if the last minute scramble wasn’t working so well.